The Sharing Economy Was Different before Uber Got Its First First Big VC Round

Internet-connected computers made resource sharing vastly easier. All of a sudden, large numbers of people could list their idle assets to share or rent. And share they did, because it makes sense to do, once the costs of connection fall.

Zimride and CouchSurfing were early examples of how the Sharing Economy might improve our lives. There was cause to be very optimistic.

Then Übercab showed up, pretty quickly landing a hefty amount of venture funding on the bet that the first-mover advantage to ride sharing would hold globally.

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